MARCH IS INTERNATIONAL WOMAN’S MONTH
March, 2017
Volume 44, Issue 3
United Professors of Marin – AFT Local 1610
P.O. Box 503, Kentfield, CA 94914 – Phone and FAX (415) 459-1524
Office Location - VS 11(B) ● upm.website
PONDERINGS OF THE PRESIDENT
FEATURED IN THIS ISSUE
By Laurie Ordin
W
PONDERINGS OF THE PRESIDENT –
The Health Care Mess
HILE ALL OF YOU HAVE BEEN WORKING HARD to
do your very best for your students, your UPM
Collective Bargaining team has, in addition to doing their
very best for their students, been working hard to do their
very best for our members. This round of bargaining has
been structured somewhat differently than in the past. In
addition to trying to address all of the various requests we
received from you, our members, we are also trying to
clean house a bit. After decades of trying to continuously
improve upon the gains we have made, the contract has
quite a number of little glitches. There are some passages
that are not completely clear. There are many articles
that have references to other articles. There are topics in
some articles that seem like they would be more
appropriately placed in other articles.
OPINION – Are Surveillance Cameras Right for COM?
LABOR HISTORY – The Triangle Fire, March 1911
FACULTY FEATURE ARTICLE –
‘Disturbing Signs’ by Patty O’Keefe
GOOD OF THE ORDER – A Modest Proposal to Help
Increase Student Enrolment - SEX!? –
– Labor Lingo; “Scissor Bill”
END PAGE – Organized Labor Celebrates
International Woman’s Month
The list goes on... and so your bargaining team has been
meeting all day on most Fridays to either work on cleaning
up the contract or to sit with the District to present our
proposals and to hear theirs. I’m sure you’re wondering
how the negotiations are going with regard to wages and
benefits, including our health care benefits. We’ve hardly
scratched the surface there! We have, however, been
working on some articles that are tangentially related.
Replace” proposal that has come
Republicans.
House
Of course, it would be great if we could improve upon the
strides our country made when President Obama was able
to have the Affordable Care Act passed and
implemented. Snarkily referred to as Obamacare, House
Republicans voted to repeal it over 60 times during
President Obama’s term, claiming that they could offer
the American people a free market based approach that
would be much better, less expensive, would offer people
more choices and would be accessible to everyone. >>
So as I ponder contract negotiations, my mind meanders
to the health care conversations that are going on in our
country now. We have heard about the “Repeal and
UPM Newsletter
from
1
March 2017
One would have thought that, having voted on repeal 60
times, the Rs would have been ready to go with a great
plan that had been vetted by the nonpartisan
Congressional Budget Office (CBO.) So when they
unveiled a plan that would provide long term cuts to
Medicaid, tax credits that are totally inadequate to cover
decent health care for poor and middle class Americans,
but provides tax breaks of hundreds of billions of dollars
for the top 1%, I thought, “Huh?”
Post article, the United States has a higher infant mortality
rate than any of another 27 wealthy countries (source:
Center for Disease Control.) According to the United
Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs the
United States world-wide ranking for life expectancy
between 2000 and 2015 was 43rd, just behind French
Guiana and just ahead of Lebanon.
So what is to be done? Clearly the Affordable Care Act is
far from perfect and needs to be improved. After all, it
was practically written by the health insurance and
pharmaceutical industries to make certain that those very
industries would continue to prosper. In order to prosper,
those industries must make a profit off of the medical
misfortune of the American people. Let me ask you
this: How has a health insurance company improved your
health in a way that your medical professionals could
not? They do not provide health care. They collect money
for it and then disperse it to health care providers,
insurance company shareholders and their employees.
To top it all off, as of this writing, this legislation has NOT
been vetted by the CBO. So we don’t know how much it
will cost or what the ramifications will be. (LIke... how
many millions of citizens will lose their health insurance as
a result of this best of all bills? Many economists estimate
that the number will be approximately 10 million.) But
hey, this bill is about freedom (just as long as you’re not
talking about a woman’s freedom to decide whether or
not to continue a pregnancy.) Poor and middle class
people will be free to choose a plan that they probably
can’t afford. They will be free
Medicare does the part about
30,000
AMERICANS
DIE
EACH
to die for lack of affordable
collecting money for health care
healthinsurance. Furthermore, YEAR BECAUSE THEY CANNOT
and dispersing it to health care
they will be free to take more AFFORD HEALTH INSURANCE.
providers.
What
Medicare
personal responsibility for their
doesn’t do is make a profit and
choices. To quote Jason Chaffetz (R. Utah), “Americans share health care profits with shareholders. According to
have choices, and they’ve got to make a choice,....So the Kaiser Family Foundation, administrative costs in
rather than getting that new iPhone that they just love Medicare are only about 2 percent of operating
and want to go spend hundreds of dollars on that, maybe expenditures. Defenders of the insurance industry
they should invest in their own health care.”
estimate administrative costs as 17 percent of revenue.
I’ve heard estimates that before Obamacare,
approximately 30,000 Americans died needlessly each
year because they couldn’t afford health insurance or
care. I don’t know exactly what happens after you die, but
I’m wondering how much freedom you have once you are
dead. At least you’re free from worrying about whether
you will die from lack of health insurance. I suppose that
the Rs think that this is a small price to pay for the
wonders of a free health insurance market. Looks like we
are going back to the bad old days. The irony is that a
large proportion of the people who will be hurt by this are
the people who voted so hopefully for President Trump
and his Republican coat tails.
Here is my unoriginal idea. How about Medicare for
all? Sure taxes would have to rise, but all of the money
that has been going to health insurance companies would
be freed up to pay for this. The risk would be spread out
among the entire population. Corporations and small
businesses would be freed from the responsibility to
provide health insurance and could be more competitive
with foreign companies that reside in countries with
government supported health care. Government
employers (like College of Marin) would not have to worry
about negotiating health care as part of their contracts
with their employees. UPM members wouldn’t have to
worry about how bargaining will end with regard to health
care.
Data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD) show that the U.S. spent 17.1
percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) on health care
in 2013. This was almost 50 percent more than the nexthighest spender (France, 11.6% of GDP) and almost double
what was spent in the U.K. (8.8%). And what do we get
for all of this expense? According to a 2014 Washington
UPM Newsletter
Maybe this is a pipe dream in this country, but I don’t
think it is quite as much of a pipe dream in the state of
California. Check out the California Universal Healthcare
Act (SB 810.)
And in the meantime, stay informed, stay in touch and
stay involved. □
2
March 2017
SURVEILLANCE CAMERAS AT COM
Arthur Lutz
C
OLLEGE OF MARIN HAS SIXTY-SEVEN surveillance
cameras located on our Kentfield campus positioned
to continually monitor the activities and whereabouts of
students and staff. And there are plans in our new
Measure “B” facilities improvement bond to add an
unlimited number of additional cameras for this purpose.
The withdrawal of these students from school will be an
unfortunate loss for them because College of Marin can
offer them a first-rate education. But their withdrawal
will also be a loss for CoM, because the cultural
perspectives that these students bring to our campus and
to our classrooms is invaluable and will be missed. And
their loss will impact our CoM enrollment numbers at a
time when our enrollment is at its lowest level in ten
years, and where this semester our headcount is down
another two hundred plus students.
According to our college administration the purpose of
these cameras is to protect against possible theft and
vandalism of college property and to help insure the
physical safety of students, staff and visitors.
Surveillance cameras on campus may offer protection
against theft and vandalism of college property, but for
those benefits we pay a price, because there are serious
unintended consequences. Surveillance cameras intrude
on privacy and create an anti-collegial atmosphere of
fear and mistrust, where each of us is being viewed
as a potential law breaker. And these cameras
especially impact students with questionable
immigration status.
All of us at our college want to work in a safe and secure
setting, and UPM has negotiated a Memorandum of
Understanding with the District that will set limits on
where, when, and how these cameras will be used to
monitor our faculty. But many of us feel that there still
must be a better way for our administration to ensure
college safety and security than to have dozens of
cameras present to scrutinize our every move. It
sends a message of mistrust and suspicion that
is contrary to the welcoming image that our
college should be projecting. It affects all of our
faculty at CoM, and it especially affects students and
particularly immigrant students.
Perhaps it is hyperbole, but it brings to mind
the assault on privacy that exists in some
undemocratic countries around the world, of which we
are so disapproving.
The theft or vandalism of an item of District property is
unacceptable and should not be justified or tolerated, but
these items can be replaced. What cannot so easily be
replaced is an atmosphere of academic trust and
openness and a campus where students are free to
engage in learning without fear of arrest because their
immigration papers are not in order. That is a far more
regrettable loss.
Our college is made up of a diverse student body. We
have students from all economic classes, all ethnic groups
and from all regions of our country. And we also have
foreign students, some of whom may be recent
immigrants and some of whom may be undocumented. It
is CoM’s stated policy to welcome and value all these
students regardless of their country of origin, ethnicity, or
their documentation status.
As President Coon has
written, “They (our students) should be able to pursue
their dream of higher education without the fear of being
arrested, deported, or rounded up for just trying to
learn.”
Students come to CoM with a desire to learn and be
productive members of our society. They should not be
forced to abandon their dreams because of fear of
surveillance cameras. Neither should faculty be made to
feel suspect at our workplace.
But with dozens of surveillance cameras tracking their
every move, and knowing that this collected data can be
subpoenaed by federal immigration agents, it is easy to
understand why undocumented students might not feel
welcome at College of Marin, and might withdraw from
school rather than risk having their identities videoed.
The human price we are paying to protect District
property is too great to justify the continued use of
surveillance cameras at College of Marin. Their benefits
are
questionable,
but
their
detriments
are
unquestionable. I believe they should be removed. □
A version of this article appeared in the “Marin Voice” section of the Marin Independent Journal on March 3rd.
The views expressed do not represent those of the UPM Executive Council. They are those of the writer.
UPM Newsletter
3
March 2017
FACULTY FEATURE ARTICLE
DISTURBING SIGNS
Patricia O’Keefe
R
protest. In watching this video the officer acts without
caution or circumspect as he sprays students. This image
taps into a history of images that show civil protesters
harmed by those in authority.
ECENTLY I PASSED BY THE CONFERENCE ROOM
adjacent to the dean’s office in the Administrative
Center. As two sides of the room are glass panels I could
easily see into the room. A group of administrators and
campus police officers were laughing as they fitted gas
masks to their faces. The incongruence of this moment
disturbs me.
I’ve just returned from an academic conference. The
theme of the conference was “Centralizing Marginality,
Marginalizing the Center.” The keynote speaker, Janaya
Khan,
an
International
Ambassador
for
the
#BlackLivesMatter
Network,
spoke
on
the
transformational capacity of language, metaphor, and
democratic discourse as a tool for change. Khan’s
approach to social justice resonated deeply within my
being. I realize when I see disturbing signs and say
nothing. Do nothing. I am participating in silent consent.
A few years ago I noticed some large discarded cardboard
boxes in the dumpster next to the suite of rooms where
my former office was located. It wasn’t the boxes that
captured my attention as much as the semi-automatic
rifles drawn in black outline on the boxes. This image also
haunts me.
It would be difficult to work in higher education without
thinking about campus shootings and what one might do if
the situation occurred while in the workplace. I know the
campus police will need to act swiftly to suppress a violent
act on campus. I hope they will use their wisdom and
training to do what is necessary to restore safely.
Perhaps the laughter I observed was a sign of discomfort
in holding a gas mask. I do not know. What little I know
about gas masks I learned from Wilfred Owen’s poem
Dulce et Decorum Est. There is no humor in Owen’s words
on gas masks. He illustrates the horror.
However, there are other acts of violence on college
campuses that seem to raise tension rather than reduce it.
The video of a campus police officer pepper spraying
students at the University of California, Davis clearly
demonstrates using excessive force during a student
During these uncertain times, it’s important to witness the
gradual escalation of violence, to strive for social justice in
our communities, and to speak up when we see disturbing
signs. □
Patty O’Keefe is Professor of Communications and Chair of our Communications Department. The poem by Wilfred Owen to
which she refers, ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ (It is Sweet and Noble to Die for Ones Country) about the horrors of World War I, is
printed below. Owen was a poet who “spoke up” when he saw “disturbing signs.” Thanks Patty for also speaking up.
DULCE ET DECORUM EST
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of disappointed shells that dropped behind.
GAS! Gas! Quick, boys!-- An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And floundering like a man in fire or lime.-Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
UPM Newsletter
4
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,-My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori.
□
March 2017
“FOR THE GOOD OF THE ORDER”
A MODEST PROPOSAL – SEX!?
I
N THE PAST SIX YEARS STUDENT HEAD COUNT at
College of Marin has fallen by 30%, and since 1980 by
over 70%.
L
AST WEEK WE RECEIVED AN ANONYMOUS LETTER
from someone (perhaps a faculty member?) who had
read our January Newsletter and wrote that he/she
“agreed and identified with almost everything” written
but was dismayed that we only presented a “one sided
opinion.”
Clearly this respondent didn’t think our
Newsletter was as “fair and balanced” as he/she might
have preferred.
According to the Marin IJ (Jan 29,) we now have less than
6.000 credit students as compared with over 20,000
students in 1980. And this semester we are down another
200+ students.
I think we all realize that this decline is a serious problem
which, if not reversed, can threaten the future viability of
our school.
Continued drops in enrolment trigger
cancelations of classes, which in turn drives students from
our campus to schools that offer more robust and varied
schedules. So it is important that we ascertain the reason
for our enrollment decline and try to introduce measures
that will reverse this trend.
In truth, “fair and balance” has never been our focus.
We are an advocacy newsletter, trying to represent the
animating spirit of organized labor and the needs and
interests of our faculty. We report news unashamedly
from a pro-union, pro-faculty perspective. Sometimes our
articles might be edgy or are satirical, but we never
intentionally misstate facts. We do, however, prefer to
leave the “fair and balance” meme to that other news
purveyor.
Perhaps a significant cause of our enrolment decline has
to do with the decline in the Marin County birth rate over
the past 20 years. Fewer county births mean fewer
eventual potential students for CoM.
If this birth rate decline is indeed causing our loss of
students, maybe there is a solution that our District can
propose during our current round of bargaining – a
solution that would increase the county birth rate.
Perhaps the District could propose a paid hour a week for
sex?
We hope the concerned letter writer and our faculty
understand the spirit that guides us, and that they enjoy
reading our newsletters.
We always welcome your comments. □
Arthur Lutz, Editor: [email protected]
DEAN HUMOR
In Sweden, the town of Overtornea, which is also suffering
from a dwindling population effecting school enrollment is
considering just that.
HREE DEANS WERE DRIVING TO DISNEYLAND. As
they approached their destination they saw a sign that
read, “Disneyland Left.” So they turned around and drove
home. □
According to the NY Times (Feb 24,) the citizens of
Overtornea will be voting this spring on a proposal “to
give municipal employees an hour long paid break each
week to go home and have sex.”
T
“We should encourage procreation,” said Councilman PerErik Muscon who proposed the measure. “Subsidized
sex,” he declared, “would give a nudge to our dwindling
population.”
Could the same kind of subsidy give a nudge to our
dwindling student population here at College of Marin?
Our UPM Bargaining Team is not averse to considering a
proposal from the District on this issue. □
UPM Newsletter
5
March 2017
“FOR THE GOOD OF THE ORDER” (2)
COMMITTEE AND STAFF APPOINTMENTS
2017-2018
MARCH LABOR HISTORY
THE TRIANGLE SHIRTWAIST FACTORY FIRE
O
T
For some, like Frances Perkins, who stood helplessly
watching the factory burn, the tragedy inspired a lifetime
of advocacy for workers’ rights and safety. Perkins was
trained as an academic, becoming Secretary of Labor
under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and helped
introduce legislation to protect worker safety.
TREASURER: Nadia Sanko
CHIEF NEGOTIATOR: Arthur Lutz
GRIEVANCE OFFICER: John Erdmann
NEWSLETTER EDITOR: Arthur Lutz
COLLECTIVE BARGAINING TEAM:
John Erdmann
Nadia Sanko
Scott Serafin
Derek Wilson
WORKLOAD COMMITTEE:
Jamie Deneris
Nadia Sanko
SABBATCAL LEAVE COMMITTEE:
Patricia O’Keefe
Scott Serafin
Walter Turner
he following nominated faculty were elected by our
UPM Executive Council to serve as UPM staff and on
committees. Their tenure will begin July 1.
N SATURDAY, MARCH 25,
1911 in New York City, a
fire broke out on the top floors
of the Triangle Shirtwaist
Factory. Firefighters arrived at
the scene but their ladders
weren’t tall enough to reach
the upper floors. Trapped
inside because the owners had locked the fire escape
doors, workers – many on fire – jumped out windows to
their deaths. In half an hour the fire was out, and 146
mostly young women lay dead on the sidewalk below. It
was one of the worst industrial disasters in US history.
Additional staff and committee
uncontested and will be as follows:
But another hero in creating change in the sweatshop
conditions where women were forced to work was Clara
Lemlich, a seventeen year old Jewish immigrant garment
worker from Ukraine who organized a walkout of 20,000
women to protest the abusive and unsafe working
conditions in the garment shops. By the age of twentytwo Lemlich was arrested seventeen times
for her activism and suffered six broken
ribs at the hands of police and security
thugs hired by the employers. She led
strikes by garment workers resulting in
higher wages, improved safety and
reduced working hours.
were
Health and Safety Committee: Arthur Lutz
Professional Affairs Committee: Patricia O’Keefe
Political Action Committees Treasurer: Arthur Lutz
Budget Manager: Scott Serafin
CCC Representative: Kofi Opong-Mensah
North Bay Labor Council: Paul da Silva
Webmaster: Derek Wilson
Social Committee: Vaughan Ariano
Bay Faculty Association: Paul da Silva
MORE DEAN HUMOR
Clara Lemlich was blacklisted by the industry for her labor
union work but remained an influential consumer and
workers’ rights activist, leading many consumer boycotts.
She died in a nursing home in 1982 at ninety-six. While
there, she helped organize nursing home attendants.
A
Dean goes to see his psychiatrist and says,” I can’t
seem to get along with my faculty and I don’t
understand why. Can you help me pinhead?”
□
March 8th is International Woman’s Day. Francis Perkins
and Clara Lemlich are two woman from very different
backgrounds, who used different methods to achieve
justice for working people. Both of them should be
honored for their contributions. □
UPM Newsletter
positions
6
March 2017
FOR THE GOOD OF THE ORDER (3)
LABOR LINGO
OPEN FORUM
‘SCISSOR BILL’ IS A WORKER WHO IS INDIFFERENT to
the needs of his fellow workers or who colludes with
management to thwart the interests of the union.
A
HE UPM EXECUTIVE COUNCIL WOULD LIKE to invite
you to our first Open Forum, on Thursday, March 16th
at 3:40pm in Fusselman Hall, Room 120.
The origin of the term is obscure. Perhaps it came from
the Scissor Bill bird and the implication that the offending
worker was “bird brained.”
Our Treasurer, Grievance Officer, Members of the
Collective Bargaining Team and Executive Council will be
there to provide updates on various union issues. They
will be available to discuss any questions, concerns,
and/or issue you might have.
SCISSOR BILL
T
The term came to prominence in 1913
with the publication of the eponymous
song by Joe Hill, the IWW labor activist
and songwriter who was executed by the
state of Utah on a trumped up murder
charge.
Several members have also volunteered to provide food
and refreshments.
We hope that you can make it and
look forward to having a
productive
and
enjoyable
discussion.
Just prior to his execution, Hill wrote to Bill Haywood, an
IWW leader, saying, “Goodbye Bill. I die like a true blue
rebel. Don't waste any time in mourning. Organize...”
“Could you arrange to have my body hauled to the state
line to be buried? I don't want to be found dead in Utah.”
If you have specific questions that you would like to have
addressed and/or questions about the event itself,
please contact Marco Gonzalez
at: [email protected]. □
The term Scissor Bill is not quite as pejorative as the term
“scab,” but not far off. □
UPM Newsletter
7
March 2017
MARCH IS INTERNATIONAL WOMAN’S MONTH
THIS MONTH, ORGANIZED LABOR CELEBRATES THE INFLUENCE AND IMPACT THAT WOMEN
HAVE HAD IN IMPROVING THE LIVES OF WORKING PEOPLE THROUGHOUT THE WORLD
THROUGH THEIR ACTIVE PARTICIPATION IN THE UNION MOVEMENT.
UPM Newsletter
8
March 2017